simple but important question I urgently need to know about the towns and villages of the UK that I was hoping that one of you just might know the answer to �.

[slowhand2]

Weds 1/11/06

Dear Answerbank Users,
There was (only) a partial and unsure answer to my following question from one Answerbank user (called "Trimmy, trim007") back on 15/08/06,but because I need a proper answer to it,I've decided to ask it again in full here,& I very much hope one of you could please answer it for me.

My question is: does anyone know exactly how many towns and villages there are in the whole of U.K. ?

and,could you please note regarding my question I've just asked you here,that:

-by "whole of U.K",I mean Engalnd,Wales,Scotland but not Ireland,

-by "towns and villages",I mean "decent" sized such towns and villages of more than 5,000(five thousand) people living in them and upto city size,

-and if you do know the answer,if possible could you please also give me seperate totals,ie:
the total number of towns in the U.K. is�
the total number of villages in the U.K. is�

-and lastly,if you do know the answer,I'd much appreciate if you could plse also quote details of your source/how you know your right.

(Please also note that before I found answerbank,that I already tried looking for the answer to my above question on the the Govt's statistics site (www.statistics.gov.uk), but that site of theirs is very confusing and time-consuming to use & even if they do have it,I haven't found the answer to it on there yet).

I very much hope someonee can please help with my above question and look forward to your reply/ answer,
Thanks very much,

Slowhand2

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

I'll post the links. You can do the counting!

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a town is any settlement which has received a charter of incorporation, more commonly known as a town charter, approved by the monarch.

There's a list of all the towns in England, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_in_ England
(NB: Ignore the entries in bold type if you don't want to include cities).

For Northern Ireland, see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_in_ Northern_Ireland
(It's not clear from your question whether you want to include Northern Ireland or not. You asked for figures for the UK, which includes Northern Ireland but then you refer only to England, Scotland and Wales, which collectively make up Great Britain, not the UK).

For Wales, go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_in_ Wales

In Scotland, the nearest equivalent to the definition of a 'town' is that for a 'burgh'. See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_burghs_in _Scotland

[Buenchico]

While those lists are fairly accurate, there are still plenty of places in them which could give rise to dispute. For example, should the towns of Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton be included? (If you vist them, you'll find that they're distinct places, each with their own character. Officially, however, they're not 6 towns but one city: Stoke-on-Trent).

Also, should each London borough be included? London isn't (officially) a city. It consists of two cities (the City of London and the City of Westminster) and many boroughs. Perhaps each one ought to be counted as a town?

People could also argue about whether Rochester is a town or a city. Officially, it reverted to being a town when the local authority failed to appoint trustees for its city charter but it's still known as the City of Rochester upon Medway.

You'll never get an accurate, meaningful count for the number of villages in the UK. There's no statutory definition of a 'village'. Many people live in villages which fall within the boundary of a neighbouring town. Should these villages be counted or are they simply part of the town?

Similarly, here in Suffolk, we have places like Rickinghall which, on most maps, appears as one village. If you go there, however, you'll find that its actually divided into two. (Rickinghall Superior & Rickinghall Inferior). So does it count once or twice? And what about the people who live in the neighbouring hamlets? The residents will state that they each live in a distinct 'village' but the postman might just regard them as outposts of Rickinghall. So, one village on the map could actually be regarded as many different villages by the people who live there.

Chris

[JonnoGenie]

You need to redefine your question.

I mean 50 people in one spot in the country make a village. Northern Ireland is part of the UK. So your question as is, does not really fall within the parameters of what anyone might be expected to know or find out.

Perhaps you could clarify what the purpose of the question is. That might shed some light on how to come up with some kind of answer...

How about looking at the index of a large scale UK road atlas and calculating the number of entries per page, and hence total?